


We All Fall Down

by JediC8H10N4O2



Series: After: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, Gen, Miscarriage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-28
Updated: 2016-05-28
Packaged: 2018-07-10 11:29:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6983095
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JediC8H10N4O2/pseuds/JediC8H10N4O2
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They had spent seven years of their lives fighting a wizard that people still feared the name of, even after his second (and final) death. They had lost their childhood to save the wizarding world. You would think that facing down a Dark Lord at age seventeen would prepare you for anything.</p><p>Turns out there are things fighting Dark Lords don't prepare you for.</p>
            </blockquote>





	We All Fall Down

Life could be cruel.

It was a truth everyone knew. Well, a truth everyone knew now. Maybe in ten years time there would be those who didn't know how cruel life could be. Or at least less people who knew. Less children. Right now, with Voldemort dead for a mere four years, the scars of war were still barely scabbed over. Sure, George was walking and talking, but he was nowhere close to being even a quarter of who he used to be.

Harry Potter knew that truth. Had lived that truth, far more than most others his age. And yet, he had hoped that life would be a little bit better now. He had hoped that after all his years of pain and suffering and helping to bring about the end of Voldemort, he and his friends would be allowed to have joy in their lives.

For the most part, life was going well. Yes, he still put his life in danger every week, but this time it was on purpose, as an Auror. And yes, he fought dark witches and wizards, but again it was his job. He was good at it. Comes from doing it your whole life. He and Ginny were planning their wedding, for the next year. He got to see Teddy every weekend. His life was probably the best it had ever been.

Fate probably thought he was getting complacent. Or had mixed up a few strands, because here he was, sitting on the floor of his best friend's flat comforting his best friend's wife.

* * *

Ron was off on a mission in Scotland, and had been for two months. Hermione had found out the good news, and was planning on sharing that with him when he got back. Which meant that Harry had the job of comforting her when the unthinkable happened.

Hermione had miscarried.

Harry remembered the joy and happiness that had radiated from his friend when she had told him a month earlier. She wanted to tell Ron face to face, not using an owl, and with him coming off a successful final case as an Auror. However, she couldn't keep the news to herself and she confided in Harry, saying he was the only one who knew.

That meant he was also the only one who could comfort her. She had appeared at his office earlier today, eyes red and hands shaking. He took one look and ushered her out of the office. Neville looked at her and nodded at Harry's silent request that he cover for him for Proudfoot. As soon as they reached Hermione and Ron's flat Hermione broke down. She choked out the story, broken by the glimpse of a future that had been snatched away cruelly.

And Ron wasn't able to comfort her. Not now, not until he came home because while telling him about the pregnancy via owl would have been a little in bad taste, giving him the news he almost had been a father in any other way than person would be cruel. And so Harry was here instead, allowing his friend to cry on his shoulder, doing his best to try and comfort her.

This wasn't something they had dealt with before. Deaths of friends and family, that had been something they were able to deal with. Harry thought that maybe it was the promise of 'might have been' that made this so crushing. Little Victoire and Teddy were almost always looked at as the future. They were bright lights when the world was just emerging from darkness. Harry looked at Teddy as his chance to do right, to not make the mistakes of his parents. Teddy was Harry's chance to make a difference the way he had always wished someone had done for him when he was younger. Victoire had helped the Weasley family heal. The first of the next generation. All her uncles swore that she would know no evil. That she would always be the laughing, smiling baby she started out as.

Incidentally, this meant that she had six men who were going to be extremely protective of her when she grew up, and five women who would hex anyone who made her cry.

The Weasley's knew there would be others, but Victoire held a special place in their hearts. She was the first to bring a smile to George's face. Everyone knew that Victoire would be special, just for that. Then had come Dominique, and then Molly. Ron and Hermione had been trying for a year to have a child, and Ginny had recently said she was considering retiring so she could start having a family. They had all started to really look to the future, and put the past behind them.

And now this.

Holding one of his best friends, comforting her after the unthinkable. Life could be horrible.

Harry didn't know what to say, didn't know if there were any words he could say to help. It wasn't Hermione's fault, sometimes things just happen. He knew this. He just couldn't express it, not now. Maybe not ever. He knew that Hermione was probably wondering, thinking, angrily telling herself all the things she should have done to protect the life that had been beginning to form.

Sometimes, the emotions spoke louder than logic.

Harry rocked Hermione gently, like he did for Teddy whenever Teddy had a nightmare and came to Harry for comfort. But unlike for Teddy, he didn't know what words to use to stop the tears.

"It's not fair," Hermione sobbed, her first real words in hours. "This is suppose to happen to other people, it's something you hear about. It isn't suppose to happen to me. To us. Not after our life already."

"I know," Harry answered, eyes on his friend's brown ones.

"It was going to be good. Not perfect, because life isn't perfect, but good. Ron would retire, be safe. We would tell the whole family, we would argue about getting a bigger place. We would fight Molly on moving into the Burrow when the baby was born, we would argue over colors, over names. Ron would take care of the baby while I worked. George would be surrounded by a baby, and it would be good for him. It was going to be the best retirement present I could give Ron," Hermione continued, her voice wobbling as she closed her eyes and pictured the future she had dreamed. The future ripped from her.

Harry held her close, wondering what his parents would have done, what her parents would have done. He wondered if growing up with a loving family he would have known what to say, what to do. Maybe, maybe Molly would know. Or Arthur.

"Hermione, do you think, maybe, you should go stay with Molly and Arthur? Maybe talk to them?" Harry asked timidly, terrified to say the wrong thing, but desperate to help his friend.

Hermione stilled. There was silence, except for the sniffling of Hermione as she thought about his suggestion.

"I...I don't…. No. Not, not now. I can't… I don't… I need Ron."

"Should I ask Proudfoot to call him back?" Harry asked instead. Hermione trembled.

"I don't know. I want him here, but it's his last mission, and he's put so much work into it..."

"He'd rather be here with you," Harry said as Hermione trailed off. "Nothing is as important to him as family."

"I know, and I know he'd be here in a heartbeat if I told him I needed him, but being an auror was something he always wanted, and I want him to be proud of his career, not have this hanging over the end of it," Hermione said, wiping tears from her eyes. Harry smiled at his friend, still trying to stick to logic even in the face of overwhelming emotions and a non-logical situation.

"He'll feel bad if he knew that you went through this alone," Harry pointed out. Hermione snorted at that, eyes still watering.

"Please. He would know you had been here for me. Neville told me that the two of you work with Proudfoot to make sure that neither of you are both on long distance missions at the same time. Neville told me it was why you and Ron weren't partners like everyone thought you'd be," Hermione said, smiling faintly at Harry's brief scowl.

He made a mental note to tell Neville he wasn't suppose to mention that to Ginny. Or anyone else.

Hermione continued. "I'll tell him… I'll tell him that the miss..that this happened a few days before he returned. He won't feel so bad. And we can go together to tell Molly and Arthur… if we decide to."

"If you decide to?"

Hermione hid her face against Harry's chest, and mumbled something he couldn't hear.

"What?"

"I'm afraid that Molly will look down on me. I mean, she didn't have fertility problems, and we've been trying for awhile, and every time we go they ask, and now..." Hermione's words rushed out, tumbling over each other.

"They'll love you no matter what. The Weasley's would adopt almost anyone if they could, they aren't going to look at you any different because of this," Harry tried to reassure Hermione.

"Not this time. They will. They'll walk on eggshells, and anyone else who gets pregnant will stay quiet and I'll get looks of pity. And...and..." Hermione broke down again.

"I'm here. I'll always be here," Harry said, holding Hermione again.

"What if I start to resent everyone for having kids?" Hermione whispered. "What if I start to hate Teddy and Victoire and Dominique and little Molly? What if I start to hate Fleur, or Audrey?"

"I don't think you could hate them. You love them," Harry said, trying to comfort her.

"But what if?" Hermione insisted, clutching Harry. "What if?"

"I don't know," Harry answered, staring at the wall. "I don't know."

They stayed like that, huddled on the floor, until the sun went down, and Harry's stomach growled, reminding them that they hadn't eaten all day.

"Take out Chinese?" Harry said, as Hermione let out a watery laugh. She nodded. Harry called the restaurant, and got the food when it arrived. He cajoled Hermione into eating a little, and managed to get her to the couch so they could watch a movie. He put on an Indiana Jones movie, and managed to get a few laughs out of Hermione. By 1 am in the morning, Hermione had fallen asleep against Harry. He let her stay there, wrapping a blanket around her and settling in.

He'd take a few days off of work, and stay with Hermione until Ron came back. It was the least he could do.

It was all he could think to do.

**Author's Note:**

> I am a horrible person. It's just that for some reason I think that one of the reasons Hermione and Ron only have two children younger than James S. Potter is because they had to recover from something like this.


End file.
